Sunday, June 27, 2010

Pickers and Hoarders and Reality TV

#30, Draw a Chair;

#182, Draw a Truck;

#206, Draw something that is familar to you that is called something else in another region

I am on the glitzy side, the touristy side, the fussy and pretty side, of our wonderful island. DH and I woke up in a nice hotel. It's a special weekend away for us. It is a dry, hot day under cloudless Kona skies, so instead of hanging out by the pool or on the seashore sipping Mai Tai's , I am doing what, exactly? Well, I'm hangin' out in a scrapyard, of course! Hubby is digging through some shipping containers full of old marine hardware, and I, after oggling some really cool vintage autos, decaying Art Deco hotel furniture and old neon signs - I am lounging in the shade of an old tractor trailer and sketching a scene of someone else's hoarded junk. This is bliss!

I have a new favorite TV show. When I first stumbled upon it, I must admit, I was drawn in by the background scenery of fields and farmsteads. Immediately I thought - "that looks like home!" And it was. The show is set in LeClaire, Iowa; a river town I used to gaze upon from my bedroom window vantage point in Rapids City, Illinois - directly across the Mississippi. A lifetime ago - I used to live there! But the appeal of the show is about something else.

I come from a long line of auction, yard sale and dumpster diving collectors. Now, thanks to the History Channel, I know there is a word for us; "pickers." We hunt, we buy, we store, (hoard?) and hopefully eventually use, refurbish and/or resell. You can have your boutiques, fashion houses and upscale shopping. We "pickers" love nothing more than a collection of, well, this.

I'm in Hawaii. I'm in a junkyard. I'm in heaven. (Oh, and #206? Some call them Snow Cones or Shaved "with-a-D" Ice, but if you live here, you know they are and will always be "Shave Ice!"

Yea ! Another post and drawing from Christie -- great!Here in Baltimore shave ice is called "sno balls" and I'm told chocolate with marshmellow is the best -- can't imagine it - but will have to try it.Blessings to you Dear One!!

Fantastic drawing! We love that show too! Yard sales and junk shops and all that good stuff has lost it's place for us since we now have too much stuff as it is in a tiny house but we love re-experiencing it all through the Pickers tv show.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog, Christie! And all the way from Hawaii! Do you play the ukulele too? And thanks for the trivia. I've really enjoyed your artwork here and will be visiting more often!

What does it mean to have a sacred place?

"This is an absolute necessity for anybody today. You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don't know who your friends are, you don't know what you owe anybody, you don't know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen". -- Joseph Campbell, from "The Power of Myth"

Chronicling my circuitous path to creative center

I once read that walking a labyrinth could heighten one's creativity. Since then the Chartres' design has become my personal symbol, the full significance of which I'm still working to decipher.